Sunday, 19 August 2012

Gordon Ramsay’s lemon tart

One of the great things about Belgium is
the amazing range of goodies available at your local patisserie. One of my
favourites is/was Le Tarisan near St Boniface. It closed about a year ago but
there is another branch in Schuman, but I haven’t been (yet). The one at St
Boniface was run by a couple of burly, tattooed, pierced, shaven-headed guys
who made the most delicate and scrumptious tarts ever, especially the tarte au
citron, whose zingy lemon sharpness was perfectly balanced against the
sweetness.

Anyway, my take on the lemon tart was not
quite as good, but still rather delish. I’ve never done a GR recipe before as
I’ve always assumed that they would be very complicated. Nope. Not a chance –
this was very simple: mix the eggs and sugar, add the cream and mix, add the
lemon and mix.

My biggest ‘mistake’ was my choice of
pastry. I used pâte feuilletée or flakey pastry from Delhaize. I
should have used pâte sablée, which is a rich, short crust pastry – think
crumbly, like shortbread. I baked it blind but the pastry still puffed up
during the final baking. Anyway, it was still delicious, with a good balance of
sweetness to tartiness. I will make it again. I had a little of the filling
left over, so I baked this in a ramekin for about 20 minutes.

You
will need:

5 unwaxed lemons

6 eggs

250g caster sugar

200ml double cream

icing sugar , for dusting and decorating

375g block dessert pastry, or if you live in Belgium, one roll of dessert pastry (

pâte sablée)

Finely grate the zest of 3 of the lemons
into a bowl. Add to this the juice of all 5 lemons

Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, then
whisk in the caster sugar until completely combined. Whisk in the cream, then
set aside.

Five squeezed lemons and six cracked eggs

Line a tart dish with the pastry with the
greaseproof paper its wrapped in. I only had a 28cm dish, but the recipe said to use a 23cm one. Let the excess pastry hang over the edge. Push the pastry well into
the edges of the dish. Put in fridge or freezer for 20 mins to allow pastry to
chill.

While the pastry is chilling, heat oven to
200°. Prick the base of the pastry case, line with greaseproof paper and baking
beans, then bake for 15 mins. Remove the paper and beans, then bake the case
for 5-10 mins more until it is brown and crisp. Lower your oven to 150°.

Strain your lemon juice mixture and then
stir the juice through your eggy-creamy mixture. GR says that you should skim
the bubbles from the surface of the custard, then pour the custard into a jug. I
didn’t, and the bubbles baked into the tart, leaving a lovely bubbly pattern. Pull
the tart out of the oven slightly, then pour in the custard so it comes to the
top of the pastry. You may have some mixture left over (as I said, I baked this on its own in a ramekin for 20 minutes as a sort of creme brulee type dish and ate it with Hubs before the in-laws arrived. Chefs pleasure). Push the tart back into the oven and bake for
35-40 mins until the top forms a light crust and the custard is just set. Leave
to cool, then chill.

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About Me

Hello! I'm Katie, and I've been living in Belgium for about ten years. Belgian food is delicious, but sometimes you just need something that reminds you of home. Finding this can pose a problem in Belgium, so I often make this from scratch. I don't grow our own or milk cows or anything like that, but I do cook with food that my grandmother would recognise.
I also love Asian and Indian food and I often make this too (it’s the only way to guarantee you get the spiciness you need!). I try to cook low-fat, although some things I just refuse to meddle with (such as sticky toffee pudding). I'll be blogging about my kitchen (mis)adventures here.

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